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EXICAN-AMERICAN 
LEAGUE 






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New York-70 Fifth Ava— 1916 






The Joint Mexican-American Peace Conference called by the 
American Union Against Militarism held its first full executive session 
at the Hotel Willard in Washington on Thursday, July 6, 1916, at 
ten o'clock. 

Present : Dr. David Starr Jordan, Mr. Moorefield Storey, Mr. 
Paul U. Kellogg, Mr. Modesto C. Rolland, Mr. Luis Manuel Rojas, 
and Dr. Atl. 

Voted that the Conference organize permanently as the Mexican- 
American Peace Committee. 

Voted that the Committee should have power to fill vacancies tem- 
porarily or permanently in its membership as ocasion requires. 

Voted that when the Committee adjourns it should adjourn to 
meet at the call of the chairman. 

Voted that Mr. Moorefield Storey should act as chairman, Mr. 
Modesto C. Rolland as vice-chairman. Miss Crystal Eastman as secre- 
tary, and Mr. Manuel Carpio as assistant secretary. 

Voted that the headquarters of the Committee for the present 
should be the Munsey Building, Washington, D. C. 

Voted that the following statement should be given to the press, as 
agreed upon by the six members : 

We believe that the American people should understand the 
sources of the Mexican revolution, the purposes which have guided it, 
the nature and causes of the disorders and crimes which have been inci- 
dentally associated with it, and the efiforts of the de facto government 
to reduce disorder and to prevent atrocities. 

We believe that the American people should also learn that the 
Mexican people are not an aggregation of irresponsible bands, but 
rather that Mexico has within herself all the elements of regeneration ; 
that new institutions, free schools, land adjustments, cooperative 
municipalities, temperance legislation, encouragement to industry and 
thrift are springing up like fresh grass after a prairie fire. In more 
than half of the States and in more than half the territory of the re- 
maining States, law and order reign, notably in the States of Yucatan, 
Jalisco, Michoacan, Vera Cruz, Sonora, Colima, Queretaro, Aguas 
Calientes, Tabasco, and the territories of Baja California and Tepic. 
The new land statutes of Yucatan -have been thought out very thor- 
oughly and the number of schools -m that State is about 2,400 today, 
as against 200 two years ago. 

It is to be borne in mind that the Mexican Revolution is in many 
respects parallel with the French Revolution, and that it was originally 
directed against similar social and political abuses : a proletariat with- 
out hope, practically confined to the soil, which was held in enormous 
estates obtained by various forms of privilege; a Church numbering 
many faithful priests, no doubt, but as a whole keeping the people in 
ignorance and wielding great political and financial power — in a word, 
the evils which necessarily follow tyrannical and corrupt government. 
Besides all this, Mexico, one of the richest lands in the world in 






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hatttrai resources, has been burdened by concessions of all kinds; oil- 
fields, mining, fisheries, railways, obtained by means which will not 
bear the light of day, so that its wealth, its opportunities have largely 
been sold to foreigners whose only interest in Mexico is that of ex- 
ploiters. 

In this connection the American people should be reminded that 
there is no warrant in International Law or in morals for the idea that 
it is the duty of any nation to assert by force of arms the privileges of 
its citizens domiciled in a foreign country. Our treaties guarantee 
them equal treatment with the actual citizen of the country in which 
they dwell or carry on business, but they do not involve the making of 
war for the benefit of individuals without regard to the conditions 
under which they may find themselves in trouble. The idea that mili- 
tary force must be at the service of exploiters is one which has borne 
the most serious consequences. 

In short, we must remember that revolutions never move back- 
ward, and that the regime of Porfirio Diaz is henceforth as impossible 
for Mexico as that of Louis XV. would be for the France of to-day. 

(Signed by the six members present.) 



A meeting of the Mexican-American Peace Committee was held at 
the New Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C, on Saturday, July 8, 1916, 
at 10 a. m. 

Present: Dr. Jordan Mr. Kellogg Mr. Rolland 

Mr. Rojas Dr. Atl 

(Of the Committee). 
Miss Eastman Miss Wambaugh Mr. Carpio 
Mr. Steffens Mr. Murray Dr. Slaughter 

The following statement, prepared by the American delegates as 
an introduction to the Mexican statement, was read, approved, and 
referred to the Mexican delegates to use as they should see fit. 

"The American members of the 'unofficial' peace conference have 
asked their three Mexican confreres to prepare a statement interpret- 
ing the revolutionary cause. Without attempting to pass upon its de- 
tails, we feel that the people of the United States will recognize that 
the statement is permeated with the earnestness, the sincerity, and the 
constructive idealism which those leading citizens of Mexico, who 
dropped their personal affairs in response to the call of emergency, 
have revealed throughout these conferences. We believe that these 
gentlemen, our friends and colleagues on this committee, are thor- 
oughly representative of the leadership and purpose of the Revolu- 
tionary movement which has endured the strain of civil war and is 
slowly but surely building a new order of democracy and justice in our 
sister republic." 

The following statement was unanimously adopted as expressing 
in general terms the purposes of the Committee: 



1. To help bring about a new and constructive era of friendliness 
between the people of Mexico and the United States. 

2. To stand ready to be of common service in the event of any 
further crises between our two governments. 

3. To interpret, follow, and promote joint negotiations between 
the two governments with respect to border control and all other ques- 
tions of public policy. 

4. To promote a common understanding between the people of 
the two countries by means of exchange fellowships in universities and 
agricultural colleges ; to encourage traveling exhibits ; to spread in- 
formation ; and to exchange knowledge of the arts and inventions. 

5. To promote cooperation between the corresponding economic, 
civic, and other professional bodies in Mexico and the United States, 
so that governmental regulation and cooperation will be parallelled by 
unofficial cooperation and mutual encouragement. 

6. To conceive of our purpose in no narrow sense, but to wel- 
come the expansion of this common work, as occasion offers, through- 
out the two countries. 

The following statement, prepared by the Mexican delegates, was 
read, approved, and referred to the American delegates to use as they 
should see fit: 

"Honest men, miisled by much that has appeared in the press, have 
doubted the ability of the Mexican people to reorganize itself. Here 
are some concrete cases that demonstrate the potent virility of our 
people which is today proceeding resolutely to the conquest of a well- 
being to which it has an absolute right. 

The ReaIv Mexico. 

When the First Chief had time, in Vera Cruz, to begin the reor- 
ganization of his government, even in the midst of battles, his first 
decree was one returning to the Indians the communal lands of which 
they had been dispossessed. In the various States agrarian laws are 
now establishing small land owners. Wherever necessary, land is con- 
demned and purchased at its just value. Properties are being revalued 
and equitable taxes levied which will, in the future, prevent the forma- 
tion of great holdings. Laws of this character are already in operation 
in the States of Yucatan, Guanajuato, Sonora, Vera Cruz, JaHsco, 
Michoacan, Colima, -Zacatecas, Sinaloa, Queretaro, Puebla, Hidalgo, 
and the territory of Tepic. 

Municipal administration had been abolished by the dictators so 
that most of the communities had lost all political and economic im- 
portance. One of the first steps of the Revolution was the restoration 
of the free municipality. In nearly all the States, laws have now been 
passed re-establishing the local communities, and a general election for 
the councils has been called for the first Sunday of next September. 

Laborers have acquired many social and economic gains; the 
larger proportion of the States have passed laws establishing a week of 



forty-four hours and a day of eight hours, as well as laws regarding 
accidents, minimum wage, courts of conciliation and of arbitration, by 
means of which the workers may solve their difficulties. It has been 
enacted that children shall not work in factories before the age of 
sixteen; that women with child may have six weeks' leave with full 
salary, with reinstatement of their position. The right of free associa- 
tion is recognized as inalienable. 

The law of divorce has been put in operation, and has produced a 
revolution in the public consciousness ; in two years it has transformed 
the social condition of thousands of women who suffered from the 
Moorish slavery established by the Spaniards. In the very first month 
that the Revolution occupied the Capitol, more than 500 petitions for 
divorce were presented. 

The Revolutionary Government has suppressed in many States the 
sale of alcoholic drinks. In a very short time the good results of this 
measure have become evident. 

In the whole of the Republic, bull-fights and cock-fights have been 
supplanted by popular games, such as baseball, pelota, etc. 

In each State there has developed an intense rivalry among the 
revolutionary chiefs to see who can organize the greatest number of 
schools. Those chiefs who are intelligent and instructed press on the 
schools through conviction, and those less instructed do it because the 
idea has been popularized that the school will save the country. The 
First Chief has sent to this country about 500 teachers to study modern 
pedagogy and school administration. Today there are in Mexico 
twenty times as many schools as in the last term of General Diaz. 
These schools were established during the worst periods of the armed 
conflict. 

The economic condition of the teachers has been notably im- 
proved. The world does not know about all this, because periodicals 
say nothing when a thousand schools are inaugurated, but if a bandit 
assaults a train the press declares that the country is in anarchy. 

The Revolution is giving new force to the laws of 1874 estab- 
lishing the separation of Church and State and depriving the Catholic 
Church of its political character, and of its power to acquire land and 
property, leaving however, to individuals, their inalienable right to 
teach freely any religious creed. 

Now that the pacification of the country is almost concluded, the 
army is being reorganized in order to make its functions compatible 
with democratic institutions, and to avoid the possibility that it may 
serve as the instrument of political groups, as the federal army served 
every dictatorship in turn, 80% of the public upheavals in Mexico 
during the past century having been due to military coups. Moreover, 
there actually exists in Mexico among civilians, and among a large pro- 
portion of even the military elements, a strong anti-militarist spirit; 
it is worthy of notice that the principal chiefs of the Revolution con- 
sider it a matter of personal gratification to be entitled armed citizens 
and not professional soldiers. 



Thu Background of the; Revolution and the Source?, oe P'resent 

Discord. 

In order to explain the historical crisis through which Mexico 
is passing, the incidents which created it ought to be analyzed, for they 
show that the causes which jeopardized the harmony between Mexico 
and the United States still exist. 

The Mexican nation has been a vast, rich field exploited by inter- 
national capital in combination with the governments of Diaz and 
Huerta and the Clerical party, taking advantage of popular ignorance. 
International capital, often by the use of illegal methods, has got con- 
trol of JO per cent, of our national zvealth. All popular efforts to create 
a just social organization therefore, have always come in conflict with 
the great international interests backed by armed forces. 

The great American interests have obtained possession of 30 per 
cent, of the wealth of Mexico, and they are the most active propa- 
gandists of intervention to prevent the hopes and plans of the Mexican 
revolution ending in triumph. 

This conflict between the ambitions of international capital and 
the rights of the Mexican people constitutes the most powerful cause 
of disagreement between the two countries. 

Lands: Before the reform law, nine-tenths of the real estate in 
the republic were in the hands of the Catholic Clergy. 

The reform laws of President Juarez in 1859 endeavored to divide 
the land by prohibiting to the clergy and every kind of corporation the 
collective possession of the land; but later, by the help of the dictator- 
ship of Porfirio Diaz, the land was again monopolized and more than 
two-thirds of the national territory was seized by a small group of 
privileged persons, native and foreign, and by individuals acting as 
agents of the Catholic Clergy, thus evading the intent of the law. 
These privileged persons obtained their lands at absurd prices in most 
of the States of the Republic, paying for them between two and seven- 
teen centavos (one-half cent American gold) per hectare (two and a 
half acres), or by despoiling the rural population by means of military 
force imposed by the old Jefes Politicos, or by having recourse to judi- 
cial hugger-mugger. 

During fifty years, every sentence pronounced by the courts in 
disputes regarding lands was given in favor of the monopohst and 
never in favor of the small proprietor. 

The Revolution is endeavoring to rectify all these acts of injustice. 

The monopoly of great estates left the most fertile lands unpro- 
ductive. The great owners paid no taxes and the public expense fell 
upon the small holders. 

Petroleum : This great resource has been exploited exclusively 
by English and American companies, especially by the Pierson Com- 
pany of London, and by the Waters-Pierce Oil Company of New York. 

The concessions granted by the administration of Diaz to the 
Pierson Company paralyzed completely the free development of oil 



lands, even of those that might have been worked by their native pos- 
sessors. The most important of these concessions consisted in accord- 
ing the Pierson Company the right that no other company should be 
allowed to exploit the land within three kilometers of the place where 
they had sunk a well. The Pierson Company obtained in addition the 
exclusive right to use the federal zones of all the east of the Republic, 
with the promise to deliver to the Government ten per cent, of the 
product they obtained. The Pierson Company took advantage of this 
to survey and ascertain the oil-bearing zones, and secretly to buy the 
land for a bagatelle from the Indians, thus evading the agreement 
which it had with the Government. At present no petroleum lands 
belong to Mexico. Foreign capitalists have acquired all the oil-bearing 
lands by deceiving the Indians or by taking advantage of the venality 
of local authorities. This national wealth flows silently to other 
countries without leaving any advantage to the Mexican people. It 
does not matter that it pays insignificant customs duties. The people 
are not able to obtain cheap petroleum to provide power for their own 
industries. Irrigation still awaits the coming of a cheap combustible. 
It is absurd that this should occur in the country which is par excel- 
lence the producer of the appropriate fuel. 

Mines: The great foreign countries control immense mining re- 
gions, and exploit them under an absolutely exclusive regime para- 
lyzing all other works that do not suit them, but which might be of 
public utility. Wages have always been so miserable that the laborers 
have only been able to vegetate. 

Under the capitalistic policy that reigned during the dictator- 
ship of Diaz, the old law that permitted the small miner to work his 
reduced holdings at his pleasure was replaced by the present law that 
favors only the great enterprises. 

Waters: Foreigners have obtained for their exclusive benefit 
falls and sources of water necessary for irrigation and the production 
of energy, and in many cases these have not been used in spite of their 
necessity to the rural population. 

Finance: The bankers have carried on operations proper to 
usurers. They have speculated in lands, timber, and every kind of 
privilege. The health of Porfirio Diaz had a profound influence on 
the markets. Mexican finances functioned on a basis of spoliation, 
and threatened to collapse with the fall of the dictator. 

Railroads : All the construction of railroads in the Republic has 
been covered by concessions for a term of 99 years and by heavy sub- 
ventions. The Mexican nation has expended more than two hundred 
millions of pesos in these constructions, and afterwards, thanks to the 
skillful combinations carried out to consolidate the railways, the in- 
vestment was overcapitalized, and the government was compelled to 
guarantee the security of an enormous debt, which places Mexico today 
in a position to lose its whole investment and to leave the railroads in 
the hands of capitalists who impose surh tariffs as please them. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




015 830 768 6 

CARRANZA: THE MAN AND HIS TASK. 

In this great reconstructive movement, Carranza represents the 
largest effort toward the reahzation of popular ideals and toward the 
practical solution of the problem of Mexico. 

The action of Carranza against the dictatorship of General Huerta 
was legal, in accordance with the provision of Article 29 of the Mexi- 
can Constitution of 1857. 

Carranza has succeeded, during the revolutionary period, in solidi- 
fying popular confidence in his personality and has slowly become 
the eflfective centre of national efforts. 

The American people naturally desire that Mexican social recon- 
struction shall complete itself rapidly. But it should not escape their 
comprehension that the solution of the complicated problem of Mexico 
cannot be attained through simple desire, nor from the outside. The 
phenomena manifested in Mexico are in obedience to social laws whose 
action cannot be hurried. 

Voted: That the Chair should appoint a committee consisting of 
one Mexican delegate and one American delegate to investigate the 
possibility of financing the work of the Committee. Dr. Jordan, Act- 
ing Chairman, appointed Dr. Atl and Mr. Storey to act on this com- 
mittee. 

The Secretary brought up the fact that if the Committee should 
undertake active work it would be ^impossible for her to serve as 
executive secretary of an active organization — The American Union 
Against Militarism — and also act efficiently as secretary of the Mexi- 
can-American Peace Committee. She suggested that a Secretary be 
appointed. The name of Miss Sarah Wambaugh was discussed as a 
possible secretary. 

Voted: The Secretary should have power to appoint her suc- 
cessor, in consultation with the Chairman. 

Voted: That the Mexican-American Peace Committee should hold 
its next session at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, on Friday, July 14th, 
at four o'clock. 

Voted: That Mr. Rolland and Mr. Kellogg should constitute an 
Executive Committee with power to act during the time between meet- 
ings of the full committee. 

There being no further business, the Committee adjourned. 
Respectfully submitted, 

CRYSTAL EASTMAN, Secretary. 



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